Perhaps taking their name from the Suffocation song from the album “Pierced from Within” (1995), these Tunisians show that sometimes it does not matter whence you band originates. With a bit of expertise, if you want to play “technical-prog death metal,” anything is possible. Brood of Hatred has the blasting and heaviness, as expected. That’s not all they do, though. An important reason for which I have kept coming back to the music is the band’s skill and consistency in adding melody. It’s not cheap, clichéd, sweet melody, either. Brood of Hatred appears as a monolith of cold, unapproachable technicality, but when you listen closely, the smooth prog side starts to show up, and that’s where the bits of melody surface. How does the band do it? I have no idea, but if you like technical-prog growl metal or if you want to hear how these Tunisians do the metal ways, put your thinking helmet on and give this album a listen. www.broodofhatred.bandcamp.com

The sound quality of this black metal appeals to the ear because of the clarity of the sound, in a more traditional way; you can hear the bass guitar; it’s not a demo-like recording, but also it is not a robotized one. As a result, you can hear very well that the songs are memorable for having real riffs and attention to the songwriting. The band has a bit of a prog feel, but it’s not too overwhelming and they stay on point for the songs. The band has recordings that reach back to 1998, but this is the first time I hear this German-language band. I find the album to have a quality all of its own, the songs are solid, headbanging and enjoyable. As stated previously, the band is easy on the ear. It’s not irritating, and I find that to be a nice surprise, for having all the elements in the right place. Investigate if you want to hear melodic/prog–ish black metal with a rather clean production and relatively easy to remember songs. It’s pleasant to hear a band that has taken the time to write songs, not just impress with “heaviness” or “speed” or “necro.” www.grabgewalt.de

Gluttony will be not be issuing any apologies to the ones gathering at street corners to say that bands “need to stop ripping off Entombed and Dismember.” Maybe some people should stop complaining about zombie-gore death metal. Gluttony is going to write old, nasty, unrobotic death metal as if 1988-1990 were the best years in all of human existence. It sounds like a Sunlight Studio production by Tomas Skogberd? Yes. Gluttony wants to show you nothing new, no attempt to be “relevant” with fashions. It’s old death metal, and that is it. Bang your head. www.facebook.com/gluttonyswe

Expulsion was a death metal band, active from 1988 until about 1997. This compilation is essentially made up of two 1989 demos, which most certainly sound like 80s death metal, with the cave, primal charm of the “old school”. In my opinion, the great thing about Expulsion is how awesome this music sounds decades later, especially if you are not very pleased with the sound of popular modern metal, from high-tech death to all these forms of core marketed as metal. In other words, only a small number of metal bands nowadays sound this way, like bands on Vic Records, of course, and Dark Descent Records and FDA Rekotz and labels like that. In any case, these old demos are not for the metal masses, as you can imagine. Rather, they are for a small number of people that support this mentality of metal. www.vicrecords.com

Rogga Johansson is known for being an “oldschoolswedishdeathmetal” riff factory and he writes music for some 15, 000 bands. Ribspreader is one of his babies. Ribspreader is all about niche marketing, finding your audience. I think I own only about 2700 recordings with Rogga, so I have some catching up to do, but hey, now I have 2701. Sweet! Rogga gives you more of the same old death that he’s always done.

Seamus from "Excuse All the Blood": chatting with a metal music show host in the state of Washington

the show Excuse All the Blood is on every Friday night at 11pm (Pacific Time; United States) at www.kaosradio.org.

THE CHAT CONTINUES HERE.

What is your opinion of core music, like "metalcore"?

I was never into it much, aside from a few bands. I was really into Shadows Fall's 'Of One Blood' when that came out, I liked Darkest Hour's 'The Mark of the Judas' and I saw 18 Visions at a club in Auburn, WA and they were so intense. Then they got really emo. That whole scene seems more focused on fashion than music. There isnt a big difference between that and the glam scene-put some eyeliner on, do your hair and you're set! Hell, I'd rather listen to Ratt than most of the 'Core' bands.

Stoner and sludge seem popular these days. Portland, Oregon seems to have a scene of those sounds. What do you think? Are there sludge bands that you like and sludge bands that you don't? Is this a new trend now?

I get why it's so popular but doesn't do a ton for me. I often associate this scene with smoking pot and I'm straightedge so maybe that's why. Is Neurosis a pre-sludge band? I respect them but have never been a big fan. Sleep is cool enough, I respect them. I love Crowbar, like Buzzov*en and Acid Bath but overall I can't get into it. I like the first Yob album. Overall, I like the music but the vocals usually aren't my thing.

Are there bands from Washington state that you like a lot currently?

I was a MASSIVE Queensrche fan and saw them 32 times. Once they kicked Geoff out of the band...that was a like a death in the family for me. Earlier this year I saw Geoff live five times in three nights. SO FUN! Funerot is one of the greatest bands of all time. They've broken up but they played live on Excuse All the Blood years ago. I'm friends with their drummer, Reuben. He's now in Christian Mistress-a great band. I used to jam with their guitarist, Oscar. He is so damn good! I used to call him Yngwie, Junior. Wolves are great, I like Ceremonial Castings. Scorched Earth unfortunately broke up but they kicked ass. Drawn and Quartered. Pathos, from Spokane, were amazing. I used to book shows but since I started teaching I'm not as involved in the scene as I used to be and feel a bit out of touch with the current local bands. Most of the music I listen to is foreign.

How do you remember the 90s in your case? Were you into rap rock/groove rock and grunge or were you into death metal and Scandinavian bands at the time? Did you ever go to a Slipknot or Limp Bizkit or grunge show or were you wearing corpse paint all day long? Do you have any embarrassing confessions about some concerts that you attended?

I never got into the trends of that decade. I saw Limp Bizkit once-they played at Wrestlemania. I saw Korn a bunch of times-opening for House of Pain, opening for Metallica, opening for Ozzy and opening for Megadeth (on the day Jerry Garcia died. Fear Factory and Flotsam and Jetsam also played) but never liked either band. I didn't hate Korn as I did LB, though. As for grunge, I liked Alice in Chains as they were the heaviest of those bands. When grunge was big I was in junior high but when the nu-metal thing hit, I was firmly planted as a metalhead wearing an Incantation shirt.

You are a school teacher. Do your students know that you are a metal music dj? Does your school ever allow you to wear t-shirts, like on casual Friday? I think every human being on the planet knows that you love Kiss, so I suppose you could wear Kiss makeup for Halloween at school, too? Would that be too much at school? It's difficult to say because everyone is so politically correct, that someone might be offended with Kiss, too, I guess. King Diamond might be too much, eh?

My students don't know about the show-it's easier that way. Although its High School I'm aware that some parents may not be comfortable with "my kids teacher listens to Rotting Christ!" Students know about my KISS-thing of course and I will try to incorporate some lighter metal into lessons. Example-on a lesson about hangings I played 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' as students walk in. I do host the 'Metal Club' every week-where students come in, listen to music and go over what concerts are coming to town. I've seen students at shows before-at a Dark Tranquility show and then at a Light This City one.

I assume that you are not excited about the Sanctuary reunion because you say that reunions are shady. Is it a coincidence that Sanctuary is back now that Nevermore is not active? Are some people just trying to do whatever earns them money in order not to have a day job? Do some people dread the idea of a "9 to 5" regular job and will "reunite" whatever in order to make money?

I love Sanctuary! 'Refuge Denied' rules! That reunion seems far more sincere since it doesn't seem like Warrell ever gave up on the band. I understand why bands get back together-its usually a business move but at the same time, maybe they miss playing those songs. A few years ago I saw Carcass on their reunion tour-it was horrible. I love Carcass but they were sloppy and I was let down. Their legacy was a bit tainted because of that. At the Gates was amazing before they broke up. It's impossible to recapture that magic so I didn't bother with that reunion. I saw them with Morbid Angel and then with Napalm Death while in High School.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

plays a form of aggro heavy metal with thrash and groove components. The vocals are in Spanish. Below is the link for the free name-your-price album called "Ideas difíciles" ("Difficult Ideas"). Listen for yourself and see if you like their take on modern metal.

Seamus, your show Excuse All the Blood is on every Friday night at 11pm (Pacific Time; United States) at www.kaosradio.org. How long have you been doing the show? Is this the first show that you host? How did you get started?

My first week at The Evergreen State College in Olympia (where KAOS is) I turned into the station to hear some local voices and heard the Carcass atrocity Swansong. The host had a trivia question: "What Neil Young song did Type O Negative cover?" I called in with 'Cinnamon Girl' and won a Dying Breed CD. He told me to come up to the station to claim it. This was September of 1996. His name was Rick and his show was The Pit. I started going to the show every week and became cohost. He mainly played bands like Dismember and I remember bringing him 'Storm of the Lights Bane' and playing that on the air. I brought in that operatic Therion song 'To Mega Therion' the second week. I cohosted The Pit with a couple different lineups (a guy named Chris and another named Dave) until my junior year when I went solo and began 'Excuse All the Blood'.

Would you say that you have an obsession with metal? Are you able to get your work done? You are a teacher, correct? There is a lot of work that teachers do at home, planning classes and writing tests and grading all sorts of things? How do you find the time to listen to so much metal and do your work?

There are only 24 hours in a day and I don't have enough time to listen to everything I want! I make time, though, but it's often in the background as I clean or lesson plan. I walk every day-you may see me around Olympia in my Alice Cooper hoodie with my headphones in. That's where I can really focus on the music. I used to live and die metal-it consumed me! I'm now in my mid 30's with a career-priorities change but I still love it. It's the only music I listen to (outside of KISS and Alice). If I hear the riff to 'Desecration of Soul's, man...that's what life is about!

When we listen to the show, it sounds like a cool and fun show, with variety and new metal music, as well as old. Yet, there must be a whole lot of work that goes into it. Can you explain what type of work is involved in putting together a show? How do you keep track not to repeat too much, how do you pick the music, how do you balance with new music? Are you always very behind on new music to play?

Howard Stern often says that people want to hear songs they know on the radio. I'm not fully sure that I agree-I think people want to hear new releases and be exposed to new bands. I try to have both, though-hence the 'Heavy Metal History Lesson' at midnight-older bands. I have a rule that (with the staples of KISS, Marduk and Anvil) no band gets played for three straight weeks to ensure that I can mix in other material. When doing prep for a regular show (not a theme one) I look back at the playlist from the last two weeks and then go from there. It used to take four or five hours to do a show prep but now I can do it in about two to three. It's fun and it's an excuse to listen to good music.

What are your earliest memories of metal music? Do you remember when you became conscious of metal music as such? What are the first bands that you liked?

I was in 2nd grade and won a Twisted Sister-Come Out and Play mirror at a fair. I loved the mirror and then I saw the video for 'Be Chrool To Your Scuel' which was the greatest thing I had ever seen. Although Sister was a light band at that point, that was my intro to heavier music. I'm an only child so didn't have older siblings giving me records and I was raised in the mountains without electricity so MTV was certainly out. Music was kind of off my radar until junior high where I got into mainstream bands like Metallica and Megadeth-I moved to the city so had more exposure.

In 9th grade my metal-dom really was born. I got into KISS (not a metal band), Judas Priest (Rob just left), Mercyful Fate, Anthrax (Sound of White Noise had just come out) and Tesatment. Although KISS was my favorite band, Testament were my Beatles. I could not get enough of them and they were local. I went to high school in Berkeley, where they are from, so they ALWAYS played. I remember seeing them a ton of times at an old club called the Berkeley Square on University. I saw a ton of bands there-Testament, Type O, Sacred Reich, Napalm Death. I went to shows in San Francisco at The Stone and Ruthies and On Broadway. I went to shows in Palo Alto at a club called The Edge. The Trocadero in San Francisco and Maritime Hall also had lots of good shows.

The first death metal CD I got was Malevolent Creation's 'Retribution'. It blew my mind. My parents gave me two dollars a day for lunch money-I skipped lunch and went to the record stores Rasputins and Amoeba that sold vinyl for $1.99 a piece. I got the entire Priest collection that way, WASP, Armored Saint, the older Overkill albums. I remember getting the Shok Paris album 'Steel and Starlight' for a quarter.

Those were really exciting times for me since I was discovering this entire new world. There was metal beyond 'Ride the Lightning'! I bought Pit magazine (remember that?) and wrote every band that was interviewed or had an ad. I got turned on to Graveland and Acheron that way, through Pit. This was before the internet so it was word of mouth and/or through print. I LOVE talking about that time period. Musically mainstream music was lousy then (early to mid 90's) but I got into older thrash and then death metal that way. Black metal was mainly 12th grade for me.

You have done shows dedicated to bands from Greece, as well as other countries. Would you say that you are a metal music explorer? As you know, the metal press is very lame, covering the same bands, dwelling on bands that, in some cases, have not been active for decades and constantly talking about gossip-related issues with members of famous bands and ex-members. Often, these bands are not even metal, yet the metal press keeps covering these issues as if these were actually relevant. How did you become motivated to hear bands that are not famous?

When I was a senior in High School I went to Ireland (I'm Irish) and bought a tape of a local metal band called System. I loved it-the song 'I The Machine' was amazing. I started collecting Irish metal tapes-I'd write people there and they would tape them for me. Perhaps that was how the international thing got started for me. I got into Cruachan that way. Graveland and Vader (Sothis, De Profundis) got me into the Polish scene. I first read about Vader in the thank you list of Oppressor's 'Operation Live' record, bought the Sothis EP and then read about the bands they toured with. Sentenced got me interested in the Finnish scene. I was SO damn into Sentenced for years-their 'Crimson' album is a masterpiece.

I like doing the theme shows (Excuse All the Greece, Excuse All the Ukraine) because it gives me an excuse to play bands that I normally don't play.

What are some of your favorite top albums of 2014 so far?

I really like the Church of Disgust album 'Unworldly Summoning' and the new Van Canto is a lot of fun! A Cappella metal! The new Hooded Menace EP, the new Vuyvr. And, of course, I like the new Ace Frehley record as well.

Epic heaviness is the motor force of Septicflesh’s “symphonic death metal.” On the internet the band has posted videos on the making of this album, in those videos they show the classical musicians that worked on this album creating lush and grandiose metal written for hypothetical movies of ancient wars, heroes and villains. Septicflesh has watched movies like “300,” “Troy,” “Lord of the Rings” and similar films and it’s evident that the band would relish the opportunity to write the music for epic movies of wars. Of course, bands like Rhapsody of Fire and Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody seem to have the same idea with their epic symphonic power metal, but Septicflesh is “epic symphonic death metal,” not exactly a sound and style that many bands do.

If you think that it would be interesting to hear a sort of “opposite” of Rhapsody music, Septicflesh is undeniably a good choice. Perhaps “opposite” is not the right word because it is a heavier version of Rhapsody, so in that sense it is similar. Either way you look at it, the album sounds unique and interesting. I do not have all of the Septicflesh catalogue, although I think both “Revolution DNA” and “Sumerian Daemons” in their own way are very good albums. It’s just that on this new one the band really sounds like they wanted to go all out for a massive and majestic work. Only time will tell how supporters of the band eventually rate this album amongst the other albums, but I think it is top of the line. Put it on your list, for sure.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Given that Hod’s last studio album “Serpent” is from 2009, and that it wasn’t always clear that this new one would ever be published, I can tell you that this material sounds carefully crafted and ready for scrutiny. Hod works with riffs that the listener into this style will notice for the quality and effort. You see, the Texas metal veterans are old-minded, experienced when it comes to their black/thrash/death metal.

To me, Hod takes Possessed’s spirit of “Seven Churches” and the ire of Thornspawn, for a sound between black/thrash/death, war metal and black metal. Speaking of Possessed, Hod’s first track “When the Ghouls Feed” channels the classic Possessed trait of song intro buildup (as found on “Burning in Hell” or “Holy Hell), but Hod extends the beginning chaos moments, and then unleashes the storm. The band has undoubtedly listened to “Seven Churches” about a million times (notice the guitar tone); add to that the fact that the guitarist Carl Snyder recorded with black metallers Thornspawn from 1997 to 2007 (according to Metal Archives) and you hear Thornspawn’s toxic mix of war and black metal (like “Blood of the Holy, Taint Thy Steel” or “Wrath of War”).

The best thing about Hod is the attention to the songwriting. The band’s lyrics and image would lead you to believe that they are low-life alcoholic unemployed stupid-dangerous hobos on probation, in other words, talentless hacks and worthless trainhopping squatter bums. Be that as it may, but the Hod-men are devoted to their field. There is no way that the guitars or songs could be this way without an obsession for detail. You don’t just get up in the morning and “write” these songs drunk and watching television, like some sort of one-note core or groove knuckledragger homeboywalk “metal.” Listen to Hod and compare the riffs, general guitar work, vocals and songs with your favorite 2014 albums so far and you’ll notice that Hod has many qualities that reveal a metal intelligence that is hidden behind the band’s image. Let’s not kid around, Hod is skillful metal that comes from years of serious knowledge and a high IQ in metal.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

The grim, necro black metal of Void Ritual is fast, intense worship of “Transylvanian Hunger” and “Pure Holocaust.” The throat-destroying screaming and tremolo-is-king guitar playing is surprisingly catchy cave art and is the work of one “Daniel Jackson,” the person behind other entities like Ancestral Oath and Daemonus, according to Metal Archives. Even after hearing this three-song EP about a million times, the charm does not wear off, a good sign if you can’t enough black metal. (By the way, “Daniel” has told this zine that he does/play everything, except the drumming, which is programmed).

If you love black metal, I recommend listening to the EP at the link below and hearing it for yourself.

A concentrated, one-target single-mindedness of purpose in classic thrash defines Tormentress, a band that privileges sharp guitar-centered speed, shredding and a festival of endless riffs. For Tormentress the idea of traditional, classic thrash is not a problem or an issue, but rather a music to be celebrated with pride. You will hear inspiration from 80s Bay Area, of course, and also German bands like Destruction, Tankard and Kreator, this latter band they cover in the form of the old and appropriate song “Tormentor.” End of story: this is thrash for people obsessed with the speed and accuracy of the genre. www.inferno-records.net

Almafuerte (1995- present) is a type of continuation of the oldest metal from Argentina: before Almafuerte, the vocalist Ricardo Irorio was in V8 (1979-1987) and Hermética (1987-1994).

In case you have never heard this band, I thought this live show would be pretty good. The style is something along classic rock, groove metal and some Motorhead. The vocals sound similar to latter-day Paul Di'Anno or Lemmy, I would say.

The music is not particularly fast, it's sing-along music, and as you can see, the crowd is very familiar with the band, given that is one of the country's most successful bands in the metal genre.

If the music sounds too old, you are too loud. At any rate, this is certainly oldies metal.

Here's a free EP of old heavy metal from a new band from Finland. Expect it dirty, like a whisky bar heavy metal motorcycle band, not the clean and happy stuff.

It's always interesting to hear bands do surprising sounds like Angel Sword. It's like they hate everything about "modern metal" and decided to stay with old heavy metal, and that's the end of the story.

Very little info about this band or project, unfortunately. Below you can hear the album for yourself and see what you think. It could be a one-person project; the quality is actually a-ok.

I'm still listening to the album and I figured those into obscure metal bands or metal bands from Texas or maybe you are in San Antonio--maybe you'd be interested. It seems to be a mish-mash of different styles.

Metal unique in elegance, talent and scope. The melodic, traditional shredder instrumental guitar playing works with a classic metal sound that is clear to the ear, uptempo, melodic and smooth (perhaps like Yngwie Malsteem, Joe Satriani, Tony MacAlpine). An outstanding component is the drum sound and style. It’s not about speed or loudness; the sound of the drums is ear-friendly. The team that determined the drum sound and style should be commended for making something creative and different. At times, it sounds like Joe Satriani getting all metal and jamming. It’s melodic, prog instrumental quality metal.

Sophistication and modernity are overrated. Hellhammer and Sarcófago are not. The vocalist sounds like he’s from primal 80s black metal like Bathory and the rest of the band is attacking their instruments in a way that make them sound awful, like early Death or Nihilist or early Carcass. Omnizide don’t want to hear about the wonders of modern technology to improve metal and to jazz it up for the young kids who need something cool to follow. Go find an open grave and jump in it, Omnizide will tell you. Dirty and raw metal is the way of Omnizide.
www.facebook.com/Omnizide

WARRANT are back!!! After 30 years the well-known German band WARRANT around mastermind Jörg Juraschek have finished their new album. We are very proud and honored that Pure Steel Records is allowed to release “Metal Bridge”. On CD the release is planned for 31st October 2014, the vinyl for beginning of 2015.
LINE-UP:

AlNamrood’s first recording, according to Metal Archives, is from 2008. Ever since then AlNamrood has been releasing its own style of black metal, and in 2014 the band has another album, about which Metal Bulletin Zine sent some questions. Very interesting story about metal music in Saudi Arabia. Read on.

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How’s life for your band in 2014 in Saudi Arabia?

Generally, life is limited in the country especially for metal music. In fact, the all the support that the band receive is from overseas, whereas, we didn’t receive any support from local bands. Moreover, our decided to keep project strictly private, we don’t want many local people know about it, it can get us in real troubles. So regardless of what city we are in, nobody really knows AlNamrood.

The first AlNamrood recording was the EP from 2008. How many years before 2008 had you been playing?

We’ve been playing music since 2006, as mentioned we had no connection with any other musician, we self-learned and self-produced our music. All the instruments were bought online, we learned playing through online tutorial videos, so yeah, the internet was a big favor to us.

Metal musicians in Saudi Arabia buy instruments online, but when the instruments arrive to your house, do the authorities not say anything?

It’s possible, we get our instrument delivered to pick up point NOT to our houses, then get it to our home discreetly, it’s possible if people noticed that might report us to religious police. We don’t know about the local scene as we are not connected with them, but for us, we faced problems with authority, some of us managed to get bailed eventually.

Is it a problem for metal bands to have websites? Does the government investigate? [I have read that there is a rock band called The Accolade, from Jeddah and they are three women; I have heard the songs on Facebook, too.]

Technically, no, however, if the website became known among people and everybody is talking about it, then the government could possibly arrest in the claim of “making a bad influence on Islamic culture.” The internet in Saudi Arabia is monitored and lots of websites are concerned, these are typically: other religious websites (non-Islamic) political, pornography, some forums, philosophy, astrology, etc.

In regard of band, Accolade we are not sure if they exist, but definitely no one can play live shows, arrest can happen immediately, unless if they do it strictly private without authority awareness, however, they are some cases that the police broke into some private compounds.

It is well known that the social media are monitored in Saudi Arabia, they are several known cases that people got arrested through Facebook because of sharing their opinion about religion or politics. And some metal band got disbanded due to governmental threat to arrest if they don’t shut down their account. The only way to manage this repressing is to be completely anonymous, having nicknames, fake addresses, and never publish any photos or lyrics that can be used a prosecution. Typically, punishment can be radical to those who oppose the Islamic regime, it can vary from prison time, 100 lashes to public execution (beheading).

About the album. For the first song, "Estahalat Al Harb," how do you create the main melody: keyboards?

We use some physical instruments, such as oud and Durbaka and the others are composed through Middle Eastern keyboard that have realistic Arabian instruments. The keyboard is equipped with variety of Middle Eastern instruments choices, quarter tune settings, effects, Arabian scale guide, etc. The song “Estahalat Al Harbâ” focal instrument and lead melody was Kanoon (or Qanoon) we use kanoon a lot in our music.

What types of drums/percussions did you use on "Heen Yadhar Al Ghsaq"?

It was Darbuka. This is the main traditional percussion we use in addition to drums.

Do you use other string instruments besides guitar?

We play Oud, the other stringed instruments are played through keyboard.

I wonder if you would explain a little about the themes and matters that you explore with your lyrics?

The band focal theme is tyrannical historical themes, we illustrates the era where injustice and religions were taking control over Arabian people’s life, in addition to glorifying tyrannical leaders and kings, bloodshed battles in the name of religion and tribal conflicts to devour each other’s, ideologies of deities (and sometime people) worship and dark matters.

Mainly we try to bring the darkest real-event or literature from the Arabian history, however, we also emphasized on the ignorance era and believe in super natural power or myth of that took over, where it opposed the development of art and science in the area, in fact this is still happening in modern day but through different methodologies.

The band name refers to the ancient Babylon king who defied deity, his name is King Nimrod (pronounced in Arabic as AlNamrood).

I'm curious, what do you think about the Egyptian/Arabian/Middle Eastern melodies of Nile?

We highly adore the work of Nile in addition to Melechesh as well. Nile sounds like ancient Egyptian BC culture, not precisely Arabian, I would call It Middle Eastern, they use selective instruments that has dark tune. We read their lyrics carefully, they did an excellent job embodying the pharos literature. They music is way dark, tyrannical descriptive and evil, it’s fitting their brutal concept demonstrably. We wish we could share the stage with Nile one day.

Thank you for your time!!!

Cheers for your support, we appreciate it.
Takes us away from all life commitments and routine.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Brain Damage is the brainchild of former vocalist/ guitarist of 80s thrashers Vendetta (Germany) (on Noise Records) Michael “Micky” Werner. While Vendetta did not reach the level of Kreator, Sodom and Destruction, the two albums “Go and Live … Stay and Die” (1987) and “Brain Damage” (1988) are albums that I listen to on a regular basis, and hold in high regard, and would recommend to anyone into 80s thrash. Vendetta is still active today, but without the main figures of Micky and Daxx (also vocals/guitars), and only the bass player from the old days, Heiner, today’s Vendetta is a different band in sound and vibe, as people have pointed out already.

In my opinion, this band here Brain Damage carries on very well the values of old Vendetta: thrash that does not forsake melody; social criticism; a similar songwriting style; and the familiar vocals. I have been listening to the album a lot and find a good quality recording with memorable songs. Actually, I find the album to be very good, to be honest. I did not know what to expect, as I don’t know what Micky has been doing. Metal Archives does not list a bunch of activity between 1990, when he left Vendetta, and 2014, when the album was released. It does appear that Brain Damage is something that Micky had been working on for years on his own, and he plays everything on the album, except for the drums. The band started out as a solo project, the band is unsigned and the album is self-produced. I was able to find the album on Amazon and got it there, as it is very reasonably priced.

I’m certainly glad that I got the album. Brain Damage is relatively varied between thrash and a bit more melodic metal, and it shows a serious effort to have good guitar work. This better not be the last thing we hear from Brain Damage! Those into traditional heavy metal and thrash should give this album a chance. It’s about 40 minutes, eight songs; quality, not quantity; no filler.

Here are a couple of songs from the album. Give it a listen, notice the guitar work and the songwriting.

BRAIN DAMAGE - Anarchy

Brain Damage - Born to lose...live to win

In case you have more interest. Listen to the old Vendetta songs and see if it speaks to you about what is special about the band. If it sparks your interest, you'll figure out why this band's old albums have some devoted advocates. If you don't believe me, read for yourself on Metal Archives and see the rating the classic albums have. There must be reasons for that, correct?

Women have been forming metal bands in Brazil for a long, long time, it just doesn't get reported (because, well, the metal media sucks, with its constant gossip coverage of the same old bands, some of which haven't even been active since the 1990s.)

Sunday, September 14, 2014

and their stupid smart phones at concerts, talking on the phone, texting, taking "selfies," playing video games, "recording" poor quality footage of the concert?

It was not that long ago that metalheads went to concerts for different reasons, and did not behave like such self-centered tech celebrity jerks. Does everyone need their name all over the internet and with a stupid "like" in order to feel validated?

Experience the madness of slavery, power and violence of "Cobra Verde", death metal concept album inspired to the Werner Herzog movie featuring Klaus Kinski.Featuring 9 hymns to hate and contempt, an amazing guest vocal performance by NILE's Dallas Toler-Wade and a crushing cover originally written by the legends of Ripping Corpse,

On September 6 black metal Void Wraith is scheduled to play the Highline. Metal Archives does not yet have much information, but you can hear and download (free/name your price) the music here. It’s raw black metal.